The Right Now List is a ridiculously simple approach to tricking your inner procrastinator. David Cain recommends grabbing a sticky note and writing down 2-3 things that you need to do right now to get started on your project. These tasks need to be absurdly easy for this to work. For example: 1) Open Microsoft Word 2) Find the document I was working on yesterday 3) Scroll down to where I left off. The trivialness of these tiny tasks is what prevents your inner procrastinator from objecting. It gets your foot in the door and before you know it, you’re making headway. — CD
You can enter a few keywords into Namelix and get dozens of business name ideas and logo ideas. It’s fun to see what it comes up with, even if you don’t plan on starting a business. — MF
50hacks.co is a crowdsourced lists of the best productivity hacks written and upvoted by users. No account is necessary to contribute, just scroll to the bottom and click on “+ Add Hack.” I just upvoted this one:
Send yourself an email at the end of the day on Friday with a short list of priorities to get started on come Monday morning. Don’t overthink it - just the top half a dozen things on your mind.
—CD
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits wrote a wonderfully succinct post on How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours. There are 4 things he mentions: intentionality, only 3 important tasks, gratitude and the most important being creating multiple moments of transcendence throughout your day. The days I remember the most are not the days I cross everything off my list. It’s the days when I slow down and deepen the moments and spaces in between tasks. — CD
I am a big fan of YouTuber Ali Abdaal. In this video about Resumes he condenses a whole book of information presenting the best advice for applying for a job into 30 minutes. It’s the same advice I gave to my kids when they started working. Whether you are looking for a job, or hiring someone, this is worth your time. Forward it to a young person. — KK
Investor Sahil Bloom posted a Twitter thread of frameworks that “provide clarity in complex situations.” Here’s an example: “Crazy Idea Framework — If someone proposes a crazy idea, ask: (1) Are they a domain expert? (2) Do I know them to be reasonable? If yes on both (1) and (2), you should take the idea seriously, as it may be an asymmetric bet on the future.” — MF
David Allen’s Getting Things Done changed my life when I read it almost 20 years ago. It describes how to create a process you can trust to capture everything you need to do, and then create physical actions to complete those tasks. The benefit is that you can stop using your brain for remembering what to do and instead use it to focus on what to do next. The book is worth reading, but everything you need to know about practicing GTD can be found on this webpage, GTD in 15 Minutes - A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Things Done. For me, it was a valuable refresher. — MF
How to say no is a collection of email templates that you can use to decline social events, meetings, dates, phone chats and other work-related requests you might get. Some of these are examples given by notable productivity experts like James Clear and Tim Ferris. You can even download these canned templates and install them into your gmail. — CD
When writing out my daily to-do list I often remember this advice tweeted by Writer Jenée Desmond-Harris: “I started dividing my to-do list into 1) things I have to do, 2) things I want to do, and 3) things other people want me to do. Life changing! I often don’t get to 3 and I finally realized omg, is this what it means to have boundaries?!” — CD
I do Zoom meetings with people all over the world, and I use Every Time Zone to find times that are convenient for all participants. It’s free, it’s browser-based, and it remembers my settings. I keep it in my menu bar. — MF
How to professionally say is a list of things you might feel like saying at work and the alternative — more professional way — you should say it. Example: Instead of saying “That sounds like a horrible idea,” you can say “Are we confident that this is the best solution or are we still exploring alternatives?” This guide was inspired and compiled from content created by @loewhaley on Instagram, and while some of it might not flow comfortably out of my mouth, I’m inspired to adopt more neutrality and directness in my professional language. — CD
IT Burnout Index is a 10-question survey that will tell you how close you are to burnout, and what your risk level is for Exhaustion, Self Inefficacy, Cynicism and Depersonalization. It only takes 2 minutes to get the results and you can then choose to check out Yerbo’s personalized insights and exercises. It’s anonymous, and doesn’t require an email. — CD
I could read a hundred blog posts on how to be more productive and still find ways to procrastinate, but these productivity visuals (Twitter thread by @elliottaleksndr ) anchor themselves in my brain and inspire me to reframe whatever is blocking me. This one is my favorite. — CD
Rectangles is a time tracking visual where each rectangle represents 10 minutes of your day and the ones shaded in green display the time that has already passed. You are left with a perspective of how many more 10-minute blocks are left in your 24-hour day. It is inspired by Wait But Why’s article 100 Blocks a Day, which asks you to visualize your life on a grid and assess how you spend your 10-minute blocks. — CD
From James Clear’s must-read 3-2-1 Thursday newsletter, this way of seeing with a new filter:
Look around your environment.
Rather than seeing items as objects, see them as magnets for your attention. Each object gently pulls a certain amount of your attention toward it.
Whenever you discard something, the tug of that object is released. You get some attention back.
— MF
Without wasting a single second of your time, this fast-paced video by Ali Abdaall describes the best productivity apps and tools available today. Here is the highly-evolved tool set that he uses to get a lot of things done very efficiently. Well researched, well presented. — KK
According to the Michelle Drouin, the behavioral scientist who wrote this article “The Time Hack Everyone Should Know,” the key to taking your time back is not a phone detox or monitoring your screen time, it is to remember we have the tool of choice (use, omit or substitute) and to have a plan of action ready the next time you reach for your phone.
There are two types of action: omission — carving out some intimate times (e.g., dinner) and intimate spaces (e.g., at night in bed with a partner) without your phone, and substitution — swapping passive time on your phone with something that has proven health benefits, like a call to a friend or a walk. Then, each time you interact with your phone, you’ll have three choices: use, omit, or substitute. Remember: Shifting in small ways can lead to big changes in our daily timeclock.
She’s right when she says, “Don’t deceive yourself into thinking you’re being sucked into your technologies. Instead, see your tech use for what it is: you knowing what you like, and you choosing to engage in it (at the cost of other opportunities).”
— CD
If you’re facing a tough decision and can’t make up your mind, try some of the 10 pieces of advice from this 2007 New Scientist article. One tip I found especially interesting: “researchers found that sad people took time to consider the various alternatives on offer, and ended up making the best choices.” My takeaway from that is to avoid making a major decision when I’m elated. — MF
I have been using this Yapp Reminders app (iOS) for a few months now to send me “gentle” and “random” reminders throughout the day. You can create whatever message you would like to appear as a notification. Mine is a reminder to pull away from the screens and connect with something outside of myself. I have the notification setting switched to “softer reminder sounds” which sounds like a soft gong calling for me to pause and reflect. — CD
This 1-minute video by John Cleese is all you need to know about how to have productive (vs unproductive) meetings. One minute! Applies to zoom meetings, too. — KK